Documentation of social determinants of health across individuals from different racial and ethnic groups in home healthcare

INTRODUCTION: Home healthcare (HHC) enables patients to receive healthcare services within their homes to manage chronic conditions and recover from illnesses. Recent research has identified disparities in HHC based on race or ethnicity. Social determinants of health (SDOH) describe the external factors influencing a patient's health, such as access to care and social support. Individuals from racially or ethnically minoritized communities are known to be disproportionately affected by SDOH. Existing evidence suggests that SDOH are documented in clinical notes. However, no prior study has investigated the documentation of SDOH across individuals from different racial or ethnic backgrounds in the HHC setting. This study aimed to (1) describe frequencies of SDOH documented in clinical notes by race or ethnicity and (2) determine associations between race or ethnicity and SDOH documentation. 

DESIGN: Retrospective data analysis. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional secondary data analysis of 86,866 HHC episodes representing 65,693 unique patients from one large HHC agency in New York collected between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2017. We reported the frequency of six SDOH (physical environment, social environment, housing and economic circumstances, food insecurity, access to care, and education and literacy) documented in clinical notes across individuals reported as Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, Hispanic, multi-racial, Native American, or White. We analyzed differences in SDOH documentation by race or ethnicity using logistic regression models. 

RESULTS: Compared to patients reported as White, patients across other racial or ethnic groups had higher frequencies of SDOH documented in their clinical notes. Our results suggest that race or ethnicity is associated with SDOH documentation in HHC. 

CONCLUSION: As the study of SDOH in HHC continues to evolve, our results provide a foundation to evaluate social information in the HHC setting and understand how it influences the quality of care provided. 

CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The results of this exploratory study can help clinicians understand the differences in SDOH across individuals from different racial and ethnic groups and serve as a foundation for future research aimed at fostering more inclusive HHC documentation practices.